High-achieving teenage students (HATS) take Advanced Placement (AP) courses to fulfill two goals: boost their grade point average (GPA) and maintain or increase their class rank. To assist in accomplishing these goals, HATS access social media (SM) and technology. Smart devices, laptops, and tablets provide easy access for HATS to build social communities where exchanging knowledge, sharing opinions, and communicating messages are related to AP. Therefore, continual access to social media communities serves as a gateway for HATS to participate in academic dishonesty (AD), which can adversely affect their performance on the AP exam but ultimately challenge the traditional models of teaching and learning. This exploratory qualitative study examines the social, behavioral, and technological worlds of HATS' participation in AP courses. Twenty-one participants shared their perspectives through focus group interviews to answer why and how social media was used to complete AP coursework. Interview transcripts were coded using Atlas.ti, and these codes, along with prior research, revealed three themes for each research question: 1. Why HATS use SM emerged into the themes of personalized learning structures, time management, and building social media communities. 2. How HATS used SM resulted in developing learning strategies, fact-checking, and AD. 3. HATS's reactions to AD included various emotions, the depths of AD considered through "morally gray" lenses, and the justifications given to rationalize AD acts. The results reveal a need to redesign our current teaching and learning models rather than trying to catch HATS' engaging in AD behaviors. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]